


Colours

by JayGreen0214



Series: The Sleepless Nights Series [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Cinnamonrol Levi, Date Idea?, Eren - Freeform, Eren Jaeger - Freeform, First Dates, Fluff, Foreshadowing, Frozen Yoghurt, He's cute too, He's still cute, High School AU, Levi - Freeform, Levi Ackerman - Freeform, M/M, Nerd-ish!Levi, Punk! Eren - Freeform, Punk-ish really, Punk-ish!Eren, Shy! Levi, Sleepless Nights Series, Tongue Piercings, Tough guy!Eren, Uke!Levi, all-night date, alternative universe, cute stuff, dinner date, eren x levi - Freeform, it's mostly fluff tbh, lots of fluff, seme!eren, so cute, unusual date ideas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-27 17:23:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6293227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayGreen0214/pseuds/JayGreen0214
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>{Eren x Levi High-school AU} </p><p>‘’Mom! I need real advice! I am going on a date with Eren Jaeger! I can’t just ‘look great’ to my mother’s standards!’’ </p><p>Eren asks Levi out on a funny date in a funny way. Exciting stuff happens, plot twists happen. At least it's not cliche.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Start To 6 PM - The Best View

It was summer, a hot one. Pools were stocked, ice cream shops working extreme overtimes, people even sat in fridges. Yet, Eren Jaeger was still wearing his black pants and shirt. 

If he didn’t usually turn heads, this would have done the job. People already stared at his radiant eyes, the soft features of his face, that candy pink colour of his lips… shit. Quit daydreaming! 

Levi had to tell himself that more often, even though he sat at the front of the classroom and Eren at the back. He could smack himself in his face. Wait, he did that, often enough. 

‘’And that is how the water cycle is completed. Who does not understand what I have just told you?’’  
The sharp voice of his Geography teacher brought Levi back to his senses. ‘’Yes sir, I don’t get the evaporation thing, why does the water evaporate?’’ 

Connie had risen his hand and asked the question. Of course, it was Connie, who else would ask a stupid question like that one? Water evaporates because the sun heats it up. 

Was it that difficult to understand? Levi rested his head in his hand and looked out of the window, he knew the answers to the questions that were going to come, so why pay attention?

Tick. Tick-tick. Tick. Pause. Tick. Tick-tick. Pause. Tick. Pause. Tick-tick. Pause. 

Tick. Tick-tick. Tick. Pause. Tick. Tick-tick. Pause. Tick. Pause. Tick-tick. Pause.

Hold on. Levi knew this pattern. He didn’t know where it was from but it sounded familiar.

Tick. Tick-tick. Tick. Pause. Tick. Tick-tick. Pause. Tick. Pause. Tick-tick. Pause.

Something about it was off, as if it wasn’t… it wasn’t in the right order! What was this ticking? Levi turned towards the sound and found no one other than Eren clicking his pen on the table in that rhythm. 

Tick. Tick-tick. Tick. Pause. Tick. Tick-tick. Pause. Tick. Pause. Tick-tick. Pause.

Eren noticed Levi was looking at him and smirked, closing his right, golden, eye in a wink. Levi frowned, the ticking stopped. With a strange, fluttery feeling in his stomach, Levi turned around and tried to read the text on the board. 

But his mind was racing, his body spacing at the now on his retina burned image of the wink Eren just gave him. His right eye closed, the eye with the golden iris, his left eye, the eye with the ocean iris, only squinted a bit. Ever so slightly, it squinted. 

Suddenly, something dawned on Levi, something strange, almost delusional, but it was a nice idea. 

Eren had been clicking with his pen until Levi turned around and only looked at him. He had stopped when they made eye contact, and he had smirked at him. 

Therefore, a conclusion here could be that Eren had been clicking his pen for Levi. Yeah, it was a strange and nearly delusional thing to think, but it was such a pleasant thing to think, too. 

Tick. Tick-tick. Tick. Pause. Tick. Tick-tick. Pause. Tick. Pause. Tick-tick. Pause.

This was getting annoying. However, just as Levi wanted to turn around again, the bell rang and freed the entire school. It was too hot to teach after one o’clock, so all of the lessons ended at that time. 

It was Friday, granting everyone an early weekend. Or extra time to do all of the extra homework they’d gotten. 

‘’Because you have to keep up, classes or no classes.’’ That was a direct quote from the Math teacher. He was a real ass.

‘’Say,’’ a low voice said, a hand catching the physics book that was nearly falling out of Levi’s locker. Stupid tiny lockers. Stupid tiny school with a tiny budget. Stupid person that didn’t see Levi could have caught that book hims- never mind, it was Eren. 

‘’Did you get my note?’’ Note? What note? Levi hadn’t seen a note anywhere this week, not even being passed around by others. He straightened up and tried to look taller, hoping to impress Eren a bit, who was ten centimetres taller than he was. 

Stupid tiny body.

‘’No, I didn’t.’’ A smirk played on Eren’s lips again, those soft, candy pink coloured lips… ‘’You did hear me clicking my pen, right?’’ Levi frowned, what was Eren trying to initiate? 

‘’It was Morse code, thought you’d be the kind of person to figure that out.’’ Morse code? Why did Eren know Morse code? Why did he click his pen? Why did he do that for Levi? 

Besides all that: what had he been clicking? 

‘’Idiot’’? No, it had four repeated rhythms, it was a four-letter word. What kind of word then? 

‘’Don’t you want to know what I was, and still am, trying to tell you?’’

Levi almost dropped his books when he looked down to hide the embarrassment on his cheeks. Why did he have to blush now? It was stupid, he had no reason to! Stupid veins… 

‘’Of c-course I do!’’ That really helped. He looked like a total idiot now. Eren chuckled and pushed some of the hair on that fell in front of Levi’s eyes away. That only made it worse, Levi now hardly dared to look at him. 

‘’I was coding the word ‘date’.’’ He was what? Was he joking? 

Levi looked up at Eren in confusion, but he had a very… gentle smile on his face. 

‘’Is that a yes or a no?’’ Levi opened his mouth, trying to force words from his throat, something that was now harder than ever before. 

As if his body just couldn’t stop embarrassing him in front of his crush, who had just asked him out. ‘’Y-yeah, s-seems fu-un.’’ 

He was going to say ‘’yeah, sure’’, but it had come out rather strange. Really, he had to work on his social skills. 

‘’Cool, I will pick you up at five tonight.’’ 

Tonight? At five? Pick up? How was that going to work? Why so early? Wasn’t it supposed to be seven or eight? Why tonight? 

Levi needed time to prepare! What was he going to wear? What was he supposed to wear? 

‘’W-wait, E-Eren!’’ Just before walking away, Eren glanced over his shoulder. ‘’Yes?’’ 

Wait, what was the question again?

Levi fiddled with his sleeves, and dropped his books. 

Great. 

That could be added on the mountain of ‘shameful things to do when your crush approaches you’, drop your books and forget what you were going to ask. 

‘’Watch out there pretty boy, we wouldn’t want you to get hurt just after I asked you out.’’ Eren bent down and picked up some of Levi’s books. 

Levi knelt down in front of him and started gathering those annoying packs of ‘educational literature’ as well. They were just words printed on trees and people hoped that the hallucinations those prints gave you, made any sense. Those people were delusional themselves. 

‘’Wh-what am I sup-pposed to wear?’’ That might have been the initial question, might not. It sounded incredibly stupid nevertheless. Strange questions + stuttering = the perfect combination for awkward weirdos. 

‘’I would say nothing, but since we’re going to be in public, I suggest something you feel comfortable in.’’ Levi felt his entire face and ears burn now. Who said something like that with such a straight face? 

Eren handed Levi his books he’d gathered in a neat stack. ‘’I will see you tonight.’’

And with those words, Eren’s soft, candy-pink coloured lips met Levi’s. 

All he could do was freeze. 

The only thing on his mind was how soft Eren’s lips were. Just as soft as he’d imagined, maybe even softer. 

This was nice, oh, wow, it was really nice. The moment Levi started to melt, Eren pulled back, another grin on his face. He stood up, turned and walked away, no more words, no more gestures. He just walked away. 

 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Now he was struggling with his clothes, trying everything in front of his mother’s full body length mirror. ‘’How does this look?’’ Levi turned to her. 

‘’You look great honey.’’ His mom smiled, that special smile mothers kept in a secret place and gave out for the world to see whenever their child was starting a love life. Or anything like it. 

She’d had the same smile when Levi came home with red ears on an afternoon in middle school. That was the same day Levi had completely realised and accepted he was gay. As gay as the rainbow. 

The most popular boy of the school at the time had done a judo class with him. More of it Levi didn’t really remember, only the conclusion that he way absolutely gay. 

‘’Mom! I need real advice! I am going on a date with Eren Jaeger! He wears black jeans and army printed shirts! I can’t just ‘look great’ to my mother’s standards!’’ 

Levi had left out the part where Eren had said that he preferred Levi to wear nothing. He’d endured enough shameful comments today. He was probably going for more, considering that his date was going to arrive in… 

‘’What time is it?’’ Kuchel looked at her watch. ‘’Almost five, oh dear!’’ Levi sprinted to the stack of clothes on the bed and pulled a pair of plain jeans from it. 

Black trousers were no good for a date with Eren, he knew that much. Well, he’d overthought that much. 

‘’Aren’t those jeans too warm in this weather?’’  
‘’No, they are made of thin fabric and perfectly manageable…’’  
The doorbell rang.  
‘’Do you want me to get it?’’ Levi wanted to say yes at first, but changed his mind last minute. Having your mother open the door for your date? Hell no.  
‘’No! I’ll do it!’’ Levi half ran, half stumbled down the stairs to open the front door.  
‘’H-hi.’’ He threw the door open, almost in his own face, slightly panting from the run and nerves. Eren stood there, in his black jeans and a V-neck black T-shirt.  
V-necks were highly overrated and stupid, but Eren looked absolutely amazing. Oh, please tell me I am not drooling.  
‘’Hello.’’  
Eren smiled, adjusted the straps of his backpack. God knows why he took that thing.  
‘’Hello, ma’am.’’ Eren held out his hand to Kuchel, who’d apparently followed Levi downstairs. ‘’Hello, Eren, I assume?’’ 

They shook hands, Eren nodded. ‘’Indeed. I will be borrowing your son for today, and will him return him around noon.’’ Noon? Twelve in the afternoon? They were going to be out the entire night? ‘’Uhm… I don’t think I can protest, can I?’’ 

Eren shrugged, that smile still on his face. ‘’You’re the mother, I am the one who has little say in this.’’ Kuchel chuckled. ‘’It’s all right, I will trust you with my little boy.’’ 

She ruffled Levi’s hair. No. He’d worked on that! She was there, and now messed it up, just like that? His mother was a horrible person.  
‘’Well then, if I can have his hand?’’ Eren turned to Levi, holding up his hand. 

‘’Uh y-yes…’’ Levi stepped outside before realising. ‘’Shoes! I h-have to put on my shoes first!’’ Smooth Levi, really smooth. 

It seemed okay though, because a few minutes later, they were walking on the pavement. Their fingers tangled together despite the heat.

‘’C-can I ask s-something?’’  
‘’Of course.’’ Eren hardly looked up, but there was a slight tug in his index finger.  
‘’What uhm…’’  
‘’What are we doing that is taking the whole night?’’ Levi nodded.  
‘’Well, nothing. I just thought that seeing the city’s ins and outs at nighttime would be a cool date.’’ 

It was an awesome idea, Levi had to admit that. Something better than the ‘film-then-dinner’ idea. ‘’Also thought you’d be one of those people that liked looking at stars while sitting on a hill with hardly any other people in sight.’’  
‘’Y-yeah…’’ Levi scratched his neck. ‘’I am…’’ 

Karma must have been a thing. Everything was going fine until Levi’s stomach decided to impersonate Satan. It growled as loud as it possibly could, despite the nerves, despite the tension in his muscles, it just happily growled. Why.

‘’Oh! I almost forgot to tell you where we are going to eat!’’ Levi had been wondering about it, too. What time of eater would Eren be? Italian? French? Maybe just traditionally Japanese?

‘’Sorry to keep you waiting.’’ Eren pulled him along into a small alley where it smelled of garbage. What kind of restaurant was supposed to be here? This… this wasn’t some kind of sick joke, was it? 

Oh, please don’t let it be, Levi had only been enjoying himself for the past few minutes – after the awkwardness had faded a bit. Eren knocked on an old looking wooden door and it opened with lots of creaking noises. 

‘’Who’s there?’’ A voice seemed to be coming from above, very low, threatening, even.  
‘’A reservation for two on the name of Mister Jaeger.’’ 

Next to him, in the dark, Eren seemed perfectly steady, fingers still laced with Levi’s, which were slightly shaking. ‘’Proceed.’’

Without any further queries or exchanges, Eren pulled Levi along. Up a seemingly endless pair of stairs. 

Strangely enough, Eren seemed to know exactly where they were going, despite the fact that there was no light. ‘’Almost there.’’ 

He was hardly out of breath; Levi was panting. When they finally reached the top, Eren opened another door. This one didn’t creak, and the smell of garbage had faded as they went farther up the stairs. 

‘’This is probably strange, but believe me, it’s worth it.’’ Eren had stepped behind Levi, laid his hands on Levi’s shoulders.  
‘’Walk straight ahead.’’

Levi did, getting shakier because he still couldn’t see a thing. Eren’s hand disappeared from his shoulders, and reappeared in front of his eyes. 

‘’E-Eren?’’ 

He was still standing behind him. The warmth coming off his chest somehow comforting Levi. His shirt was soft. 

‘’Go on.’’ Levi went on, slowly, step by step, still nervous. ‘’Okay you can stop here.’’ 

Eren lowered his hands and Levi had to blink at the amount of light streaming into his eyes. His mouth fell open before his mind could process where he was. They were on top of a building in the middle of the city centre, with a view of the entire city. 

‘’Wow…’’ Eren stood next to him and smiled, almost shyly. ‘’You like it?’’

Levi nodded, his mouth still open. Someone behind them coughed. Levi turned around and saw a man standing behind them. 

He was tall, very tall. At least two metres, and two metres wide. He wasn’t fat, he was just huge; Levi could fit into his shoulders twice. 

‘’Have a seat!’’ Eren said, pulling back a plastic chair that Levi swore he saw at the IKEA two weeks ago. 

He sat down and Eren pushed him to the table and sat opposite of him. An old, nearly dead candle stood between them on a wobbly plastic table. 

‘’So Levi.’’ Eren folded his hands and leaned on the table, nearly making it flip over. ‘’Tell me some more about yourself, we’ve got all night.’’ 

He smiled again, a kind, almost luring smile this time. Not once in his life had Levi seen Eren smile this much, and the evening had only just started. 

However, when Levi opened his mouth to ‘tell something about himself’ every bit of information he had about his life, flooded from his brain. Faded like a snowflake near fire. 

‘’I uh… I have grey eyes…’’ That was the greatest thing to have ever been spoken by Mr. Levi Ackerman, thank you brain. He could as well have said nothing. 

‘’I prefer silver.’’ What? Levi’s eyes snapped up to meet Eren’s. 

Two different eye colours, it was utterly fascinating. Then, fascinatingly beautiful. The clash of two entirely different colours, oceanic blue and a nearly orange gold, it was… it was breath taking. If he could, Levi would stare into those eyes for hours on end.

One day, he would. ‘’The colour of your eyes, I prefer to describe them as silver instead of grey.’’ 

His thumbnail touched his lip. Candy coloured pink lips, different eye colours, brown hair, Eren was an explosion of colour. That was an almost funny contrast to his clothes; they were either black or army-themed. 

Maybe he was trying to tone down his own radiance by wearing one of the two colours that weren’t colours; black was only a reflection of light, after all. It sucked light up whereas other, normal colours… 

‘’How about your hobbies? Do you have anything you like, or really hate?’’ 

As if it was a reflex, Levi wrinkled his nose. ‘’I can’t stand dirty things.’’ Eren chuckled, his eyes lighting up with a boyish sparkle. ‘’Well then you won’t like my mind.’’

Levi’s heart skipped a beat and his cheeks got very red in very little time. ‘’I didn’t mean it like that..!’’ 

Eren was going to say something, but he was interrupted by a large hand that put down a plate in front of him. ‘’Food.’’

The deep voice of the tall man they met earlier grunted. He put down a plate in front of Levi too, and Levi looked at its contents. Interesting. Funny, but interesting. On the plate, there was a circle, or more like a crater of black rice, surrounding a piece of… origami?  
But why would you put that on a plate? You don’t eat paper. ‘’It’s chicken.’’

Eren said, figuring Levi’s confused frown. ‘’Oh.’’ 

Oh. Oh, wow that was amazing. It was a simple origami figure, the widely known bird, but now it wasn’t made of paper; it was made of meat. Pretty rad. 

‘’You might want to eat it before it flies away, just break it in pieces.’’ Levi looked up, noticing that Eren had already started eating. Replacing the candle, between them stood a small jug filled with a thick white sauce, in contrast to the black rice. 

‘’That goes with the rice, I assume?’’ Eren nodded, his mouth full with food. Levi poured some of the sauce over his ‘’volcano’’, scooped some up onto a spoon and tasted it. 

The white sauce was creamy, the rice was sharp, but in a good way. Kind of like spicy sharp, as if it had edges, but the sauce smoothened it out. 

‘’Excuse me.’’ A woman stood next to the table. She had red hair, almost orange, that was tied back in a very tight ponytail to her neck. On her head was a small white hat. 

She was shorter and had more body fat than the man had, but other than that, they looked alike. Levi would have been able to compare them better if the man was standing on the roof too, but he seemed to have disappeared into that pitch-black space they came out. 

‘’Don’t forget to eat your vegetables.’’ The woman turned her head and looked at Eren, she had a small face on a thick neck and very big cheeks, but Levi could make out something rather... peculiar? 

The woman smiled at Eren, baring two rows of yellow teeth, one of her front teeth missed a large piece. It would be better to say it had broken in half.  
‘’Of course not, Schwester.’’ 

Schwester? That’s German for sister, isn’t it? Levi tried not to stare at the both of them as the woman set down a large silver plate, picked up the jug containing the sauce and put it in a pile of vegetables. 

As soon as the woman had left, Levi leaned forward to Eren. ‘’Did you just call her ‘sister’?’’ His eyes might have been bulging out of their sockets but he was too surprised to care. 

‘’I did.’’ 

Eren dug into the vegetables, a small smirk on his face. ‘’Is she really…?’’ Chuckling, Eren shook his head. ‘’No, I just call her that. It’s a habit that came forth out of her taking care of me and me refusing to call her mutti or Mutter.’’ 

Levi didn’t muster an answer; there were too many questions arising and tossing in his head to form one. Eren looked merely amused. 

After having assembled some of his thoughts, Levi picked up his spoon and laid some vegetables on his plate. 

‘’You should eat them with the rice, makes it better.’’ He was still amused, wasn’t he? Eren was right though: the combination of the sharp rice, creamy sauce and surprisingly sweet vegetables was delicious. 

As his mind became more peaceful, Levi opened his mouth and started to ask questions. 

‘’She took care of you?’’

‘’Hm-hmm.’’

‘’So… your parents didn’t? Or they couldn’t?’’

‘’Neither. They could, but they were busy. I went through a very rebellious phase in which I was hardly ever home, including the nights. I found this place by accident, and the couple more or less took me in. You could see it as the Weasley family in Harry Potter.’’

‘’That doesn’t make a lot of sense.’’

‘’I knew you were a little sassy. It’s okay, I like it. My mom was in a car accident a few years ago and broke both of her legs, she was in rehabilitative physiotherapy for a long time. My dad had to earn all of the money so he worked full-time, and always with my mom afterwards. I have an adopted sister, but everyone was fighting those days. Besides, she’s better at school than I am and is a year higher.’’

‘’Basically you have a second house.’’

‘’Kind of, yeah.’’

‘’How’s your sister?’’  
‘’Pretty hot, if I am allowed to say that. Though she isn’t really much of a romantic or sexual person, prefers silence and comfortable chairs. She’s very sweet to me, caring, almost like a real sister. The year my father had to work so much was the only year we fought, actually.’’

‘’She sounds nice.’’

‘’Is that an automatic answer?’’

‘’I thought I was the sassy one, but no, she really does sound nice, I would love to meet her some time.’’

‘’I think you’ve heard of her, her name is Mikasa.’’

‘’Mikasa… Ackerman?’’

‘’Hm-hmm.‘‘

‘’She is your sister?’’

‘’Sort of.’’

‘’Wow…’’

The story behind this was that there was a girl, or more of an urban legend, who was said to be insanely strong and beautiful. 

The stories about her had different levels of craziness. In one, she had knocked someone out who was two years older, in another, she had picked up a row of lockers and threw it on the very same person. In that last story, the boy didn’t die, but he did end up in the hospital with six broken ribs and pneumothorax. 

‘’How strong is she really?’’

‘’She can lift and carry the both of us with ease, but she can’t punch through a wall or something like that.’’ 

That was a reference to another one of Mikasa’s legacies. A fake legacy, in this case.

‘’Damn.’’

‘’Do you have brothers or sisters?’’

‘’No. sometimes I wish I had, but I also hear that siblings can be annoying and loud.’’

‘’Yeah, that’s true.’’

Eren’s expression had turned into something completely new to Levi. He was leaning his head in his hand, his eyes soft, a light smile on his lips, a breeze that came with height waving through his hair… If anything, he looked peaceful. No, not peaceful, content, that was a better word. 

Levi got the sudden urge to kiss him, but he put his spoon in his mouth instead, chewing on the last bite of his food. He was a little disappointed there was no more, but his stomach said otherwise. 

‘’Say uhm… Do you have more plans for the coming night and morning?’’ 

Eren was going to bring him back home at noon, it was now half past six. They still had eighteen and a half hours together. It seemed a lot but Levi would soon find out otherwise. 

‘’I have some ideas but no concrete plans, no.’’


	2. 7 PM - Looks Can Be Deceiving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the date to really start...

‘’I have to confess something.’’ Eren said as they left the alley, their fingers tangled again. 

For a moment, Levi’s heart dropped, before getting back into its spot and starting to pound frantically. ‘’I told you I had some ideas but no concrete plans, I kind of lied.’’ 

Thank God, Levi thought that Eren was about to tell him the date was a joke or that they had to leave or anything worse. 

‘’I…’’ Eren started to dig into his pocket with his free hand. ‘’Made a list of…’’ Apparently, what he was trying to find, was not in his pocket, so Eren started to dig in the other one. 

With a relieved sigh, he took out a slightly crumbled piece of paper. ‘’And you get to pick what we are going to do.’’ 

He unfolded the paper with one hand and smoothed it out on his thigh prior to handing it to Levi. 

Levi started to scan the options, crossing out bungee jumping in his head already. Mostly because of the current time and the amount of money Eren would have to spend on that. 

It was seven PM, and though it wasn’t dark yet –or any time soon – it wasn’t exactly the time to go on an international shopping spree. He crossed that one out too, even if he wanted to do it some time.

All the time while he was still holding Eren’s hand, whose thumb was circling his palm, sending tiny shivers down Levi’s spine. 

‘’Oh!’’ It slipped from between his lips without a thought or complaint from his brain. ‘’Let’s do this!’’ 

He held out the paper, index finger on a box after which was written Go to a bookstore and leave notes in books for other people to find. Eren chuckled. 

‘’I expected you to choose that one, funny enough.’’ He gripped his hand a little tighter. ‘’I know the bookstore just for this idea.’’ 

Eren pulled Levi through a pair of glass sliding doors, and for a moment, Levi couldn’t breathe. 

The bookstore was enormous: the ceiling was at least ten metres high and housed two floors, there were bookshelves on every wall and on the ceiling, there were old newspapers pasted. 

Large pillars divided the store into small areas, probably ordered by book genre. There were sofas, chairs and even beanbags scattered around the place. 

Usually in stores, there is bright light coming from those annoying fluorescent lights, but here that was only the case above the registers. 

Said registers were unoccupied, noticed Levi, but as he looked around, he noticed something else that made him smile. The people supposed to be occupying the registers, were sitting on beanbags, chairs or sofas, reading. 

There were hardly any people in the store at the moment, which was normal considering the time and the fact that there was a lot more to do outside. 

Eren let go of Levi’s hand and put down his bag, zipping it open. He rumbled through it for a few seconds, finding a sticky notepad and a pen. 

‘’What would you like to write?’’ Levi thought about it, long and hard. Spoilers? No, that was plain mean to do. Positive things? No, he wanted it to be funny. Sarcastic positivity was fun, but difficult. 

‘’Let’s just start with a book genre, and we’ll see.’’ Eren said, walking to the silent Detective area. Levi nodded, quickly going after him. 

They decided to pick an Agatha Christie after long thinking and pointing. The book was called ‘A Murder Is Announced’, one of the Miss Marple books. 

Eren handed Levi the notepad, saying that he could write; Eren’s handwriting was terrible. 

‘’There has been written on this paper already though.’’ Levi commented, frowning slightly at the ‘you’ writing on the first page. 

He flipped to the next one, but there was writing on that one too. ‘Are’, you are? 

With a sigh, Levi flipped to the next page, unwillingly feeling butterflies in his stomach, and an all too familiar heat on his face. ‘Cute.’ 

‘’It’s no lie.’’ Eren giggled. Levi did not have to open his mouth to know that he had no answer to that. 

‘’Okay, but what do we write on the notes we actually put in the books?’’ Eren stopped giggling, they both started thinking. 

‘’A random quote out of the book itself!’’ Eren’s mouth curled into a smile when he came up with the idea, and soon enough, they were going through the book, trying to find a fitting quote. 

They found one, finally, copied it and pasted it in the front of the book. ‘’Use that fluff of yours you call a brain.’’ Levi read aloud. ‘’And read this book.’’ Eren quickly added. 

They chuckled, moving on to a new book. In the non-fiction section, they found the book ‘Nobody Heard Me Cry’ by John Devane. 

In the front of that book, they put ‘I see I am not the only chicken around here this evening.’ 

Their next ‘’victim’’ was going to be The Invention of Hugo Cabret, but they ended up on a beanbag, Eren reading to Levi, Levi on Eren’s lap, Eren’s arms around him, holding the book in front of them.

As Eren read on, time passed by too quickly. His voice had a new sound to it, a new ring. Usually, it was low and almost gruff, but now, it was softer, sweeter.

It did get a little hoarser over time though, but he didn’t seem to mind.


	3. 8 PM - A New Colour

The book had five hundred and eleven pages, but not all of them were covered in letters, like normal books. In The Invention of Hugo Cabret, some pages were drawings, making the reading go a lot faster. Plus, the letters were quite big. 

Eren’s warmth made up for the heavy air conditioning in the bookstore, the soft fabric of his shirt providing a perfect pillow. Levi would take his body over a beanbag any time. 

‘’Hugo stood in the dark outside the old man’s apartment building. He wiped the snowflakes from his eyelashes and fiddles with the dirty buttons on the front of his thin jacket, rubbing them between his fingers the way he had rubbed the cover of his notebook.’’ 

Levi could drown forever in his voice, stay there in his arms until the end of time, but he knew that wasn’t exactly possible. 

People around them were looking, not that they noticed, though. 

They would walk into the store and only notice the duo later if they came into the section they were at. Some people just walked by, only glancing.  
Others whispered, questioning the person they were with about Eren and Levi. 

‘’What is a punk doing with a normal guy?’’ 

‘’Why are there two guys sitting there?’’ 

‘’What are they doing?’’ 

‘’Are those gay?’’

Luckily for Levi and Eren, not a lot of shallow people come into bookstores. So there was no one asking ‘’Why the fuck are there faggots here?’’ 

There were some girls giggling, considering them cute. 

‘’Excuse me.’’ 

The boys looked up in surprise. In front of them, a girl was standing. She had blonde hair in a ponytail that hung over her right shoulder. Her hands were planted on her hips. 

‘’I have to send you out.’’ 

Even though she tried to look tough, the girl smiled. Eren gently pushed Levi up from his lap and stood up next to him. 

‘’You’re closing?’’ The girl nodded and took the book from Eren’s hands.  
‘’Or would you like to purchase it?’’ 

Eren looked down at Levi, who blurted out a ‘’yes’’. 

The girl giggled, and Eren picked up his bag. They all walked to the counter, Levi skipping a little bit. 

The book would be a nice souvenir for the best date ever. 

Eren paid, even though Levi would have done it, but he insisted.

‘’Now that we have been kicked out of there, what would you like to do?’’ Eren’s arm smoothly wrapped itself around Levi’s waist. Levi’s eyes turned upwards to look at Eren, as he bit his lip. 

Consciously, hoping that Eren would catch his drift. Flirting was a lot harder than actors made it look like in films though, and Levi couldn’t keep a straight face for longer than two seconds.  
He started to giggle, before grabbing Eren’s shirt and pulling him down. That was way easier than trying to hint it. 

Luckily for him, Eren responded right away by placing his hand between Levi’s shoulder blades, and kissing him. 

Now, Levi could really feel how soft Eren’s lips were. Even with his eyes closed, he could vividly see the candy colour of them, and now, he felt them. 

They moved together, a little clumsily because Levi did not have that much experience in kissing. 

Very little, actually. 

Eren did have some experience, but not enough to be called a professional kisser. Although the definition of ‘’professional’’ was being paid for it, so he would never be a ‘’professional kisser’’. Sadly. 

When Eren, very carefully, trying not to scare Levi, opened his mouth and turned their innocent kiss into a French one, Levi shuddered. 

His fingers curled into the fabric of Eren’s shirt while the sensation, that was completely new to him, ravaged through his nerves. 

Then, and only then, he noticed something new. It felt weird, but at the same time it was quite a turn-on; Eren had a tongue piercing. 

Levi didn’t know why he’d never noticed it before but decided that he didn’t care ‘cause no knowledge prepared for feelings. 

Especially this feeling. 

Through his experience, whether that was a lot or not, Eren had learned how to work with the small synthetic ball that lay on his tongue at all times.  
He was more than eager to use those skills on Levi now, and they seemed to work. When he pulled back, Levi looked at the ground, panting ever so slightly. 

His face was flushed and he was shivering a bit. ‘’I-I didn’t k-know you ha-had a…’’  
He looked up at Eren, originally planning to quickly look down again but his eyes got stuck. 

Eren smiled, poking out his tongue to reveal a small, red coloured ball on his tongue.  
It wasn’t very visible, which was probably the reason Levi never noticed it before. ‘’Tongue piercing?’’ Eren finished his sentence, and Levi nodded. 

With no idea for other conversation subjects, Levi decided to play on the piercing. ‘’Didn’t it hurt?’’  
Eren shrugged. ‘’It was doable, not as bad as people make it seem.’’ 

Levi fiddled with his sleeves. ‘’Oh- okay…’’ Eren chuckled, pulling Levi close to him and kissing the side of his head.  
‘’I got you all flustered,’’ Levi muttered in embarrassment.

‘’For real though,’’ Eren said as they were walking hand in hand down the street. ‘’What do you want to do? Sun’s not going down for a while.’’  
Levi swung their hands back and forth, swaying slightly with his feet. ‘’We haven’t had dessert yet.’’ 

Eren looked down. ‘’I didn’t think you would want any.’’ Levi shrugged, a smile playing on his lips.  
‘’Well you were right, but now I do. I know a really nice place.’’ 

Slightly surprised, Eren raised his eyebrows. ‘’Okay, direct us there.’’ Levi couldn’t help but let out a small giggle at the thought of what he was taking Eren to. ‘’Sure will!’’

When they were about five metres away, Eren already started to feel his punk-ish feelings churn.  
He didn’t let it show, because Levi was wearing the brightest expression he had ever seen, and that made his heart flutter more than anything. 

Levi threw open the door and cheered ‘’Hello!’’ to the girl behind the counter.

If she had feelings, there would still be only one: boredom.  
She was actually really pretty though: blonde hair that probably reached to her shoulders, if it weren’t for the fact that she had it tied up into a knot; bright blue eyes; and an admirable figure.  
Her name tag read Annie. 

‘’Hello there and welcome today, for your information, we don’t have a Wi-Fi network anywhere close to this…’’ Annie paused, probably swallowing a word she wasn’t supposed to say. ‘’Place, so just talk to each other or stare in awkward silence. How can I help you?’’ 

The last sentence wasn’t really pronounced as a question. Since Annie spoke in a monotone voice that basically screamed boredom, but it was a question so Levi took it as one. 

‘’We would like two cups of frozen yoghurt- blueberry yoghurt, with….’’ He turned his head to Eren.  
‘’What do you want on it?’’ Eren let out a long breath, trying to buy himself some time to actually look while he dropped his eyes to the glass counter. 

‘’Strawberry and chocolate syrup… please.’’ Eren said, quickly adding the last word while looking at Annie, who was staring back just as hard.  
Levi had already made his decision beforehand –he came here often. 

‘’I’ll have the raspberries and strawberry syrup, ma’am.’’ Annie sent Levi a death glare before turning around and starting on the yoghurt. 

‘’Are you feeling uncomfortable?’’ Levi played with the fabric of Eren’s long shirt. 

‘’Oh you got me, how did you know?’’ Eren replied sarcastically. 

‘’Just a random guess, really,’’ Levi smirked. ‘’Mister Punk and All-Black in a colourful place like this, with flowers on the tables and soft yellow lights instead of bright white fluorescent ones…’’ 

Levi looked up and sucked in a breath. Eren looked really, really nice in this light. That was an understatement.  
His skin looking more delicate and his lips even softer, one would think it wasn’t possible, but it was.  
His eyes stood out even more, strangely enough. 

There it was again: the urge to kiss him. 

No, Levi didn’t just want to kiss Eren; he wanted to do much, much more. 

He wanted to get on his lap and feel his hot breath on his face, he wanted to grab at his shirt because Eren kissed him so fucking good and he wanted to rip that very same shirt off his body and feel every inch of his skin that was hidden underneath under his own hands. 

When he realised what he was thinking, Levi turned bright red. 

He never thought like that, where was this coming from?  
There was a funny feeling in his stomach and he wanted to hide now. ‘’There you go.’’ 

Annie put down the two cups of frozen yoghurt on the counter –she had to stand on her toes to do that- and started to tap on a screen.  
‘’That will be six-eighteen yen then.’’ She said. 

Eren wanted to step forward but Levi pushed him away. ‘’My dessert, my treat.’’  
Levi quickly let go of Eren’s hand and dug into his pockets. 

There was no wallet. 

Oh right, he’d been doubting about what to wear this afternoon. He knew exactly where his wallet was: in the right pocket of the pants he wore to school today. 

Then he remembered something: his mum. Kuchel was the kind of mother who only wanted her child to enjoy their life, and she’d given him money to pay for whatever was needed.  
Well, the limit was at a bowl of caviar. 

He’d put that in the small chest pocket of his T-shirt. Don’t ask why. 

The money was placed on the counter and Annie returned whatever was left. Levi wasn’t really paying attention. 

They sat down at a table in the back of the shop. On the other side of the street, that gave them a view of the canals of the city without the fuss of too many people walking by. 

For a while they sat in silence, Levi sat on his knees on the thin pillows placed on hardwood, squared benches. 

Their table was dark orange, a sharp contrast to the green napkins that lied on it and the green of the leaves from the flowers.  
The flowers were dark pink, darker than Eren’s lips, but the petals looked about as soft. 

Gosh, couldn’t he just focus on his yoghurt? 

Levi glanced up at Eren, who was already looking. 

Eren choked out a laugh while trying to eat a spoonful of frozen yoghurt, resulting in him biting the smaller part of the spoon, trying not to spit out the half-melted-diary-and-saliva mix in his mouth. 

Levi felt his cheeks flaring because his mind had once again decided that Eren looked horribly attractive while laughing and looking away almost shyly. 

The tip of his tongue traced to the middle of the spoon to lick away whatever yoghurt that was on it, and Levi could see every detail of it. 

Add to that that he put his feet on the floor because they were going numb and Eren’s knee touched his: Levi was the solution to a mental and hormonal equation. 

‘’Are you alright?’’ Eren asked concerned. ‘’Y-yes..!’’ Levi stammered, trying to find words or anything that made sense.  
‘’I j-just uh… eh… I-eh…’’ 

Not daring to speak another word, Levi put his spoon in his mouth, having nearly emptied his cup. 

‘’Okay…’’ 

The ‘’ay’’ was stretched long, showing that Eren was, to say the least, not believing what Levi had said. 

Without another word, Levi finished his melted yoghurt. 

At the end of it, he looked up, knowing that there was something that was definitely not food making his stomach feel so weird.  
He breathed a little quicker, his hands were sweaty while they lied in his lap and his head was fuzzy. 

‘’I was kind of hoping you would get some of this stuff on your cheek so I could very clichély kiss it off, but you are not a messy eater so I guess I will just have to wait for another opportunity.’’  
Eren grinned, very rapidly bringing Levi back into reality. 

A shot of whatever crashed into his arteries and Levi stood up, made his way to the other end of the table and pushed Eren back down when he wanted to stand up as well. 

‘’Why wait?’’ He whispered, putting his hand on the back of Eren’s head and getting down on his lap. 

‘’Well if I had known this would happen, I would have gotten frozen yoghurt at the start.’’  
Eren said, slightly baffled at the other’s sudden courage. That was pretty hot. 

Okay, it was really frigging hot. 

Levi pecked his lips a couple of times before Eren sat up straighter, trying to hold him. 

Trying, because he failed. 

Instead, Levi placed his thumbs just before Eren’s ears and his hands behind them, holding him tightly in place. 

He let his tongue touch Eren’s lips before he couldn’t take it anymore either and just kissed him the way he wanted to: hard, with his arms going around Eren’s neck.

From one instance to another, they were making out in a frozen yoghurt shop.

It was a small place, so fortunately for them, there was only one other woman around, excluding Annie. 

The woman had a chocolate skin and very curly, thick, black hair. She didn’t even glance up from her phone (she was using data roaming).

‘’Get the fuck out of my store, Levi.’’ Annie was standing next to them, arms crossed over her chest, with a look that could kill a man.

Levi jumped and looked at her, turning really red really quickly. 

‘’Of course, ma’am,’’ Eren said teasingly, his arm still around Levi’s waist. 

Annie didn’t respond, she just looked down at him, turned around and walked back to the counter to help a new customer. 

Levi stood up and stumbled backwards.  
‘’S-s…’’ Eren silenced him by laying his finger on Levi’s lips, making the other look up at him.  
‘’We’ll throw away our empty cups and leave in silence, it’s fine.’’ Levi just nodded.

It was a quarter to nine.

They sat on the edge of the old city wall that was once blown apart in a battle, and now a monument. 

Silently, they looked at the water slowly streaming below their feet, enjoying the warm breeze.  
The temperature was gradually dropping, it was nice now. 

That could have been because they just had something cold, though. 

‘’Is Annie uncomfortable with seeing two boys kissing?’’ Eren asked.  
Levi shook his head. 

‘’No, she’s not homophobic. She’s more like… couple phobic... but not afraid, just disgusted.’’ 

‘’She’s asexual or…?’’ Again, Levi shook his head. 

‘’For as far as I know, she’s demisexual, not that her sexuality has anything to do with it, and grossed out at public displays of affection.’’ Eren chuckled. 

Silence fell again, but it was all right, it was comfortable. Levi leant his head against Eren’s shoulder and together they watched the river flow. 

People crossed the bridge, a boy with ripped jeans and blonde hair that looked gold in the sun. 

A girl wearing a white trench coat and purple hair. 

A woman with light brown hair in a tight knot on top of her head and very big sunglasses on her nose. 

A man with a dark blue shirt that was too tight around his massive shoulders. 

A woman and a small girl that was probably her daughter, light brown jumping curly hair and a bright pink dress. 

Another girl, wearing short denim shorts and a low-cut white top, long blonde hair flowing behind her, red lips. 

She turned her head and saw Eren. 

The world seemed to slow down. 

Eren looked back at her. 

She raised her hand, palm turned to Eren, but her long, neon green painted nails were visible to anyone. Eren waved back, the sunlight falling into his eyes, lighting them in a way Levi should have seen.

It was nine PM.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooh, weird ending? You'll see...
> 
> Foreshadowing: who can find all of the three hints? Tell me your suspicions below and I will tell you whether they're correct or not.


	4. 9 PM - A Thousand Colours

‘’Levi?’’ Eren shook his shoulder. ‘’Levi, are you falling asleep?’’ 

Levi groaned and turned his head into Eren’s shoulder, pulling up his legs. Ah, he smelled so nice. 

Eren’s scent was musky, probably from his deodorant. Although through it, Levi smelled something more. Forest-y, like pine trees and maybe freshly mowed grass. That was even better than the musk.  
‘’Aaahw baby, come on, I have an idea on what to do next.’’

It took a few seconds before Levi shot up. 

‘’What did you just say?’’  
His eyes were slightly wider than usual, and there was a blush creeping up from his neck. 

‘’I have an idea on what we could do next? Would you rather stay here for a little longer?’’ Levi shook his head. ‘’No, no the other thing!’’  
Eren was confused now, he frowned. Levi was nearly bouncing, so he tried to calm himself down and took a deep breath. 

‘’Did you just call me ‘baby’?’’ 

Eren froze. ‘’Uh…’’ He scratched the back of his neck, looking away. ‘’Is… is that a problem? I mean it just kind of slipped ‘cause it fit the sentence or something I don’t really know…’’ 

That last sentence was increasingly muttered. It made Levi weak to the very bone. ‘’N-no I-uhm…. It’s fine.’’ 

Levi didn’t know what to do with his hands as he moved them from his red cheeks to his wrists and finally dropping them on his thighs, lightly gripping at his knees. 

‘’That’s nice, baby.’’ Eren quickly recovered and pressed a kiss to Levi’s forehead.  
‘’Want to go to the thing I made up?’’ 

Levi looked up, tilting his head slightly. ‘’You made something up. Like a castle in the clouds?’’ 

Eren shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. Damn it how did he manage to look sexy without even trying?  
‘’No, I just want it to be a little surprise,’’ Eren paused. ‘’It’s quite far though, so we’re not walking.’’ 

Levi now tilted his head to an angle of nearly forty-five degrees. ‘’Then how are we going?’’  
Eren stroked his hair, making Levi want to lean into his palm, but he resisted his own feelings, for now. ‘’Depends, are you afraid of water?’’

Levi gave him the ‘the-fuck-kind-of-question-is-that’ look. That included furrowing eyebrows, lips pressed in a tight line and multiple blinking. ‘’How can I be afraid of water?’’ 

About ten minutes later, Levi realised what the question should have been. It wasn’t ‘’Are you afraid of water?’’ it was ‘’Are you afraid of falling into water out of a boat and being devoured by the propellers?’’ 

Levi wasn’t afraid of water or boats, but Eren could have formulated that question a little less subtle. ‘’Have a seat.’’ 

When Levi asked him if Eren didn’t need a license to fare a boat, Eren told him that the boat was small enough for anyone above the age of sixteen to fare it. 

It was lovely, though the water splashed up around the edges of the boat and into Levi’s face, so he hid behind Eren.  
Eren held one arm around him, the other steering. This was indeed a lot faster than walking.

‘’Say, how did you get the idea for your tongue piercing?’’ 

That wasn’t a question a lot of people had asked. 

‘’It was an impulse, actually. I was really angry with my parents once and as an act of rebellion, I got my tongue pierced. It proved to be a little less fun in the three days that followed, because it got swollen and hurt like hell – my parents laughed at me, of course – but I decided to keep it in the end, because it looks pretty cool.’’ 

‘’Hm-hmm…’’ Levi agreed. 

‘’You know Isabel dyed her hair for the same reason, except she lives with her aunt.’’ Eren looked at Levi questioning.  
‘’Isabel, uh, my friend. She dyed her hair purple once, because her parents went away for a year, and she got really sad about it. So she bought a package of purple hair dye and did that. But she didn’t use gloves and had purple hands for two weeks.’’ 

Eren laughed, and Levi joined him. 

‘’Isabel Magnolia?’’ 

‘’Yes, how come you know everyone?’’ 

‘’I don’t know everyone… I know most people of our school though.’’ 

Levi rolled his eyes in quasi-annoyance. ‘’Did you ever do anything spontaneous?’’

Eren asked him. ‘’I went on a date with you.’’ Eren’s mouth formed an ‘’o’’ before Levi couldn’t contain his laughter anymore. 

‘’No, I haven’t,’’ he giggled. ‘’I am quite boring, now that I think about it. My parents are still together, I don’t have any siblings, my grades are above average, I have some good friends, but nothing really interesting.’’ 

Eren’s lips twitched: from sucking in the right half to biting his bottom lip, whilst he thought about his words. 

Finally, he frowned and looked at Levi very doubtful.  
‘’Then how come I do find you interesting? Maybe because of your adorable red cheeks or because of the way you seem very hungry to kiss me?’’ 

Levi opened and closed his mouth a few times, slapped Eren’s knee – nothing painful – and crossed his arms.

‘’Am I making you shy? That does seem to be one of the things I am very good at tonight.’’ 

Levi muttered: ‘’Arrogant….’’ He swallowed another word. 

‘’Aaahw, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’’ He sounded sincere. Levi chewed on the inside of his cheek. 

‘’I’m not upset, I just can’t find the right words to say while you do that flawlessly and I am embarrassed because of it.’’ 

Leaning forward, Eren pressed a kiss to Levi’s temple. ‘’It’s fine, I think it makes you really cute.’’ 

‘’You’re doing it again.’’ 

‘’You’re still cute.’’ 

‘’’Hmpf…’’ 

Eren chuckled. 

Then, the sky started to change.

‘’Oooh!’’ Levi called out, pointing up at the air, forgetting about his embarrassment completely. 

The sky was turning itself into a colourful palette. Orange, purple and blue mixed together to form a canvas, the sun being in the middle.  
Combined with the boat speeding over the water, the edges of the riverbank not far from each other, it was the most wonderful picture Levi had ever seen. 

That experience was, however, rather short-lived, as the sky started to turn a darker blue, the orange fading away and the purple blending in. 

‘’This is my favourite time of the day,’’ Eren said, leaning back and holding Levi close to him. ‘’Aha…’’ 

It wasn’t as if he wasn’t interested; Levi was simply taken in by this sight, too. 

It was dark azure above his head, and while leaning against Eren, it was breathtaking. 

‘’The stage between night and day, with just enough light to see, but too little to be seen. I think it’s fascinating.’’  
Levi murmured something in agreement. 

The boat went forward, to their destination, and by the time the sky was getting even darker, Eren stopped it. 

‘’I will get you out in a second, just let me tie this down, okay?’’ 

Levi nodded, sitting up as Eren jumped out of the boat onto the river bank, nearly cat-like.  
He threw a rope that was already attached to the boat around a wooden pole and made a funny-looking knot in it. Then he stood up straight and held his hand out to Levi. 

‘’Please don’t fall in the water, my dear,’’ he said, probably imitating Leonardo DiCaprio or at least a fancy gentleman in the 1930s. 

‘’Of course not,’’ Levi replied, stepping up next to him. 

They stood chest to chest for a few seconds, Eren looking down at Levi, Levi looking up at Eren. 

‘’Come on, I want to show you that thing I was talking about,’’ Eren started to walk, still holding Levi’s hand.  
He quickly glanced over his shoulder and whispered: ‘’You’ll be free to do whatever you want once we get there.’’ And winked. 

They arrived at a large building, that was all Levi could see because it was pretty dark already. ‘’What is this place?’’ Eren didn’t answer him, instead, he hushed him. 

Levi heard a soft ‘’smack’’ and nearly jumped, but it was just Eren who’d put down his bag. He unzipped it and started to search through it. 

‘’What are you doing?’’ No answer, even though Levi had whispered. 

Eren seemed to have found what he was looking for, and suddenly there was light. He’d been looking for a flashlight. 

There was some mumbling from Eren. He was looking down at a small piece of paper with numbers on it, pressing on what appeared to be a… door. Well, that was not something Levi noticed before. 

‘’Go on in.’’ The door swung open.

Only with Eren’s hand on his back as guidance in the dark, Levi dared to go in. The door closed, and Levi jumped, again. 

‘’What is this place?’’ He whispered anxiously.  
Eren didn’t say anything, but Levi assumed he was the one that turned the lights on. It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust but then- ‘’OOH!’’ 

Levi’s mouth dropped open and he unconsciously started to spin around at the sight that now surrounded him. 

There was black at intervals, there was grey at his feet, but there was blue, there was blue everywhere. Water was everywhere.  
They were in a massive Aquarium.  
There were enormous sharks swimming right above his head, there were colourful fish and fake corals. 

It was marvellous. 

Levi stopped spinning and faced Eren, a question now rising in his head. 

‘’Isn’t it supposed to be closed?’’ 

Eren shrugged. ‘’Supposed to be, yes, but I’ve got access.’’ Levi sighed: ‘’Wow.’’ Eren could only look at him and smile. 

Soon enough, Levi didn’t want to stay in one place anymore, and he started to walk.  
His fingers trailed the glass, and every now and then, a fish or two would swim up to them and follow him for a while. 

The moment that a huge manta ray ‘’flew’’ over the arch, Levi stood still and followed it with his eyes all the way along, his mouth open in amazement. 

Eren wanted to look at the fish, he really did, but he only had eyes for Levi now. The way he ran around and jumped and skipped and how his eyes sparkled, Eren felt like he could die.  
Not even slowly, Eren was falling more and more in love with that boy. He didn’t know how or why, but he was. 

‘’Eren look the manta ray is coming back, come on, let’s chase it!’’ Chase they did. Sadly, the manta ray disappeared out of sight soon, and Levi pouted in disappointment.  
A shark came by and he was up and running again. Not that difficult to please. 

When he realised that Eren was no longer next to him, Levi turned around and looked back to find him.  
He was a few metres back, looking at something behind Levi dreamingly. 

Levi looked over his shoulder if there was maybe a vending machine or manta ray, but there was only a dark turn to a new part of the aquarium. 

What was Eren looking at? 

Was he… Levi felt his ears getting hot at the thought Eren was looking at him. 

‘’What are you thinking about?’’

Suddenly, Eren was standing right in front of him, pushing his hair behind his hair. He was really, really close. 

It was strange that Levi was so hyper aware of this even though he’d straddled him not too long ago in a frozen yoghurt shop, a public place. Now that they were alone, he felt nervous. 

‘’I was… wondering what you were looking at…’’ Levi admitted, now wondering why he didn’t just say he was thinking about the manta ray? 

‘’And what came to mind?’’ Eren’s arm slid around his waist, lips against his hair. 

‘’A possible vending machine or pretty fish…’’ Levi mumbled against Eren’s chest.  
He was glad Eren couldn’t see him; he knew he was flaming red. 

Eren chuckled, his chest gently vibrating with the action, sending shivers down Levi’s spine. ‘’Do you consider yourself a pretty fish?’’

Levi shrugged. ‘’Not much.’’ 

Eren’s hands went up further, to his back, but to Levi’s surprise, it was a hug. A tight, warm hug that expressed something not even world’s greatest writer could have put into words. 

‘’I do think you’re a pretty fish,’’ Eren whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So about the change in the upcoming chapters, this is it:
> 
> Around 12AM, I will be giving my readers a choice. A choice in which action they want Levi to undertake. You choose, and then you continue to read either the BLUE or the YELLOW chapters! Mind your choices! 
> 
> .... I would be the person to read both, but that is too confusing so start with one colour and read the other when you've finished. I would love it if you let me know which choice you make!


	5. 10 PM - One Special Colour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really, really sorry about how long it's taken me to update. I've been getting crazy busy lately, and this chapter is very short. You all deserve a lot better than this, but it's all I can give you for now 3:

They walked through the aquarium, holding hands, for a while. It was a comfortable silence, for a while. That was, until Levi jumped and raced to the glass, a fanboy-ish shriek coming from his mouth. He pulled Eren along, shamelessly. Eren didn’t really understand what was happening, until Levi spoke actual words: ‘’I’ve never been this close to a dolphin before!’’ He pressed his nose to the glass, his breath forming little condensed clouds on it. 

‘’Really?’’ Eren was surprised; he’d somehow expected Levi to have seen every animal up close, for some reason. Maybe he’d assumed that Levi’s parents were super rich and Levi super spoiled. 

Maybe he assumed that for too many people. ‘’Yeah! Well, I have been to a show once, when I was very little, but I don’t remember much of it. Not that I think I touched a dolphin there, anyway.’’ 

Eren smiled; looking at this boy who was this excited about seeing a dolphin gave him a warm feeling in his chest. As if he was reliving one of the best periods of his life, though he couldn’t recall which period that was supposed to be. 

Perhaps the first year on his new school, of which he’d spent most of his days looking at Levi. He’d never really dared to talk to him, for some reason. Levi seemed out of reach, always surrounded by people who admired him in some kind of way. Then he thought of something.

‘’Hey, you want to get really close?’’ Levi’s mouth fell open against the glass. ‘’Even closer?’’

‘’This is kind of illegal, but they won’t catch us.’’ Eren opened a door that says PRIVATE. ‘’E-eh… I’m not sure what I think of that…’’ Levi admitted. 

‘’It’s not like we’ll get a record for it or something, they just would not like finding us here.’’ Eren shrugged.  
‘’Who are ‘they’?’’ Levi could only think of the police, huge beefs with sticks and guns that would come at him to lock him up. Saying that his mom would be disappointed to find him in a cell for the night, would be an understatement. Never-minding the fact he didn’t exactly like cops.   
Eren turned around, a sly smirk on his face. ‘’The staff, of course.’’ 

Levi wasn’t sure how much truth there was in that sentence, but he followed Eren inside - out of curiousity, of course. 

They entered a small room. It became lit by an old fluorescent light, when Eren found the switch. The ceiling probably used to be white, but it was a battered yellow, with spider webs and mould in the corners. In the middle was an old wooden table, with some chairs around it, not in particular order. In a far corner was a kitchen.

The room in general had a stale scent to it, even though there were windows open. They didn’t stop there, they continued through another door, into a dark hall. For a moment, Eren returned to the room that was assumably the canteen, and turned off the light.

He didn’t turn on the light in the hall; he just carefully led Levi through it. Levi noted to himself how Eren probably had a thing for dark rooms. However, just like in the restaurant, Eren seemed to know exactly where he was going. Eren did things Levi would never even think of doing, but it had an exciting note to it. Also a terrifying one, but he tried to ignore that. 

Another door, to the right, then a pair of straight stairs. They had to climb up with their hands and feet. 

All this strange, sneaky stuff was completely worth it, though, when Levi saw where they had arrived. ‘’Oh my-‘’ Eren covered his mouth. ‘’Ssh.’’ 

His lips were so close to Levi’s ear that it made him shiver. With Eren’s hand to guide him, he walked across a small, metal bridge. The only light was coming from what was under that bridge. 

Light blue light, from the aquariums, that were right under their feet. One wrong step and they would be soaked, among the fish. 

Eren was looking around carefully, searching for... ‘’Just a bit more.’’ 

They did walk a bit farther before Eren stopped. ‘’Right, here.’’ He crouched down and pointed down at the water. ‘’Are you sure you’ve never been closer to a dolphin?’’ Eren grinned, a boyish spark in his eyes. 

‘’Do you mean-‘’ Levi excitedly held his breath and knelt down next to Eren. ‘’The dolphins? Right under my hand?’’ He stuck out his hand, above the water. ‘’Right under your hand.’’ 

Just as Eren said it, a curious snout poked out of the water. It was a soft dark grey, and a mouth in the form of a smile adorning it. Small black eyes at each side of the dolphin’s head blinked the salt water out of it.

‘’You can pet it.’’ Eren said. ‘’I mean: her.’’ Levi looked at Eren confused. ‘’Her? You know this one?’’ 

Eren sat back, and started taking off his shoes. ‘’Not just this one. I’ve been here many times, and know most of the dolphins. Though I can never be sure because I don’t know them half as well as the actual keepers do.’’ 

Levi’s brows furrowed. ‘’Is there a place you haven’t been?’’ Eren’s face pulled into a grimace. ‘’Heaven.’’ Setting his shoes aside, Eren tilted his head to Levi. ‘’Although I do think I get quite close, when you’re with me.’’ 

Levi blushed, not really able to think of something to say back. Eren took off his socks and put them in his shoes, then rolled up his jeans and lowered his feet into the water. 

He let out an exhausted sigh, and Levi wondered, for a moment, where it’d come from. ‘’It’s way too hot outside to do anything at all.’’ Levi nodded. ‘’That’s true.’’ 

As time passed, more dolphins popped up, getting air, but also pushing their noses against Eren’s feet.  
Soon enough, Levi’s feet were dangling in the water as well. The dolphin noses tickled his feet, and he giggled. That made him look irresistibly cute, and Eren prayed he wouldn’t look creepy because he couldn’t stop staring. 

While he was looking at those dolphins, the light from the water reflecting in his eyes, Eren knew; he’d never seen anything or anyone quite as beautiful as Levi. 

He never would see anything as beautiful again, either.


	6. 11 PM - My Favourite Colour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written in ages, so I decided to update two stories at once (logic). By means of an apology, have an extra long chapter! And again: thank you so, so much for your endless patience, you're amazing.

As if it had been timed. 

Eren’s watch buzzed at the eleven pm mark and at the same moment, the door swung open at the far end of the ‘’room’’. 

‘’Ey!’’ A voice, Eren snapped his head in the direction. 

A man. 

A security guy who probably sat on his butt all night, eating doughnuts and drinking coffee with three teaspoons of sugar. He was out of breath and on his bald head balanced a dark-blue hat. 

A hat, in this weather? He must be very proud of it, Eren thought arrogantly. 

‘’Ya ain’t suppos’d to be ‘ere!’’ The man shouted. 

He had an obvious accent, although Eren couldn’t place it at that moment. He seemed to remove all Hs in his sentences, and swallowed the Es. He kind of sounded like he missed a few teeth. 

Before he finished his sentence,though, Eren was on his feet and had picked up his shoes. He turned around to run but stopped. 

Levi. 

He looked down, looking for Levi. 

Levi, who was no longer sitting. 

Levi, who was standing up straight, his hands in front of him, seemingly ready to start running and face the guy in front of them head-on. 

The man, who was a good ten metres away, but who had started to walk – or rather waggle – towards them. 

‘’Levi!’’ Eren hissed. ‘’What the bloody fuck are you doing?’’ Levi didn’t respond, but the muscles in his back tensed. 

Fight, flight or freeze; Levi was a fighter. 

Eren wasn’t, and he ducked down, picked up Levi’s shoes and grabbed the boy’s shirt. 

‘’Run!’’ They ran in the opposite direction of the police officer, all the way to the other end of the dolphin’s area. 

Levi stumbled as Eren pulled at his back, and seemed to get back to reality. He followed Eren, to what seemed to be a dead end. 

His heart pounded in his chest, and he felt every single blood vessel in his body pump the blood around. He was hardly aware of the hard ground under his bare feet. 

Dolphins swam along with them, chirping and cheering at each other, as well as at Eren, and perhaps even Levi, even though they didn’t know him.

They reached the end of their trail too soon in Levi’s opinion, especially because of the fact there didn’t seem to be a way out. There was a metal, shiny railing, and behind that, a wall. 

That was what Levi assumed, at least; he couldn’t tell exactly. 

They had stopped running, but his heart was still pounding. At this moment, out of absolute _fear._

What would happen if they got caught? 

Would they get taken to jail? They would get out, surely; they didn’t break in. Eren had had the key. 

_Oh God._

What would his mom say? 

He would get grounded and prohibited from ever seeing Eren again. No, no that couldn’t happen! They were hardly halfway through their first date! 

What were they supposed to do? 

Eren, he would know. 

Eren! 

‘’Ere-‘’ 

Before he had even started his sentence, Eren placed one hand on the railing and jumped down, into darkness. 

Not a wall after all. 

‘’Eren!’’ Levi leaned over the edge, gripping the railing tightly. 

‘’Jump!’’ Eren’s voice came from below, but Levi couldn’t see where; it was all black down there.  
‘’Hurry! I’ll catch you!’’ Thinking only about the loudly pounding, approaching footsteps behind him of the man who was still shouting gibberish, Levi swung one leg over the railing, then the other. 

The railing was slippery under his sweaty hands and he couldn’t think. He couldn’t make out Eren’s form below him, and his head was spinning. 

He lost his balance, and fell into the darkness with a high yelp. 

For a moment, he was certain he would crash onto a concrete surface.  
How could Eren possibly see him?

He would break his leg, his arm, maybe his nose… but instead he was skilfully caught in a strong pair of arms, accompanied by warmth and Eren’s heavy breathing just above him. 

‘’Holy shitfucks…’’ Levi whispered, and Eren’s chest shuddered with a nervous chuckle. 

‘’That’s the first time I’ve heard you curse.’’ 

He had no idea what Eren looked like right now, he could only feel him. He felt a soft nudge against his head, and realised it was a kiss. 

‘’Ready to run on?’’ 

Levi was put carefully on his feet. The floor beneath him was comparable to the one they had at school: smooth, probably blue, and excellent to run on. 

Eren’s warm fingers slipped between his own, and they started running again. 

‘’How… Are you… Seeing?’’ 

Levi asked, through huffed breaths, his throat hurt and he wanted to stop, but at the same time, running felt amazing. 

The floor underneath his feet seemed to make him bounce, and passing air created a soft breeze to cool his head. That was his only consolation, though, because felt completely blind. 

Eren chuckled. ‘’No, I just know very well where we’re going.’’ 

He didn’t sound out of breath. Rather than that, he sounded amused. At ease, almost. 

His answer puzzled Levi. Was it a regular occurrence in Eren’s world to run from guards late at night? 

They turned right, and suddenly stopped. Levi bumped into Eren’s back, and thought that it was a lot harder than his chest. 

Oh right, he was wearing a backpack. A click and Eren opened a door. 

They stepped into a room Levi recognised: it was the canteen from less than an hour before. The window was still open, and that was exactly where Eren was climbing through right now. 

Dear, that boy was sure fast.

Levi wiggled his fingers. Eren’s hand was gone, and the air between his fingers seemed cold, lonely. 

He went after him, climbing through the open window, into the still warm evening.

Eren stood in front of him, hands on his knees, panting, a broad grin enhancing his already gorgeous features. 

Levi noticed, he was panting, too. His lungs rapidly filled themselves with air, as if they were trying to hold onto the tiny molecules. 

Adrenalin slowly started to break down and the rush faded. 

When Eren looked up, his eyes reflected the moonlight, and something about them was making it harder for Levi to regain his normal breathing pattern. 

Before Levi could find the words to describe his eyes, Eren was walking again. 

‘’We need to get away before Mr. Funny Accent comes to get us.’’ 

Levi did agree with that, and followed him to the boat. 

He got in first, but he was trembling from the entire happening just now, and the boat swayed violently when he put in his first foot, but he didn’t jump out. 

He did sit down as quickly as humanly possible. 

Eren undid the knot in the rope and jumped in, somewhere in the middle and the boat hardly moved. He started the engine and it roared to life. It made for the soundtrack of their successful escape. 

Slowly, Levi’s body stopped shaking, and he was able to put on his shoes. He wasn’t sure what to think. 

On his own, he would never do this. Although his own behaviour scared him, in hindsight. 

Was he really going to fight that police man? 

No way, right? 

His mom would strongly advise against it, as well as his dad. 

Though he got a high-five from his dad when he finally stood up for himself, a couple of years ago. 

He’d gotten bullied by a couple of boys who were much, much bigger than him. At least, that was how Levi had felt about them. 

One day, after his mom had told him that she was going to talk to their parents, they didn’t seem that big. 

The last thing Levi wanted was those boys after him because his mommy had been talking to theirs. 

So he took in a deep breath and punched the biggest guy right on his nasty nose. 

He always had boogers under his nose, and it seemed too big for his face. Now, there was blood flowing from that same nose. 

Thick, dark red blood, in a small but steady stream. The boy started screaming like a banshee, even though no one was going to die any time soon. 

No, right now, there was no blood flowing. Right now, Levi realised he had been staring at his left shoe, laces in hand, but not moving. 

‘’Are you all right?’’ 

Levi looked up, Eren’s sharp blue and gold eyes were holding his in a strange, tight clasp. A clasp without any physical connection. 

That was the weirdest thing Levi had ever felt, but somehow, it didn’t feel bad. That was the perfect excuse to stare into the endlessness that was Eren’s eyes. 

At the moment, they were sharp, focused. The moonlight fell in and reflected the blue and gold into something different. 

Especially the blue, it was as if it turned into a colour from another world, something from fantasy books in which the protagonist would find a new world that housed more creatures than anyone could ever imagine, all in different colours. 

Eren, with his hair whipped back through the wind, his eyes open wide and his T-shirt pulled tight around the sharply defined muscles on his chest, looked like he came from another world. 

The word ‘’angelic’’ might have fit, if it hadn’t been that Eren was by no means an angel. He was by no means a demon, either. 

He was somewhere in between. 

Levi couldn’t find a word that suited him.

‘’Well, that ended a little more rapid than I had anticipated.’’ Eren said. ‘’Oh dear, he totally ran his ass off chasing us.’’ 

His chest shook with laughter.This time, the moonlight reflected the white of his teeth and completely transformed Eren into a god from another world. 

Levi giggled, partly because what Eren had said _was_ funny, and partly because he was trying to hide his red cheeks and a strange feeling that was filling his chest. 

‘’I think it would take a lot more running for him to do that.’’ Levi said between his giggle fits. ‘

‘’True.’’ Eren leaned back against the backrest. 

Levi felt a sudden urge to climb onto his lap and just- _Oh my God I want to snog him._ Levi thought, his own eyes going wide at the thought. 

‘’Oh well, there’s a first time for everything,’’ Eren said and Levi literally jumped up. 

‘’W-what?’’ Had he just said his thoughts out loud? No way… 

‘’You weren’t listening?’’ 

Had he been saying anything? 

Levi wanted to jump into the water and never come back up again, he’d clearly been ignoring Eren.

‘’Don’t mind,’’ Eren smiled. ‘’I was saying that you have probably never run away from law, or been in contact with law at all.’’ 

Levi sat up straight, his hands between his knees. ‘’Actually, my mom is a cop.’’ 

‘’Oh right, I forgot that for a moment.’’ 

Eren had a content look on his face, the corners of his mouth were turned up slightly, and he seemed… At ease. 

He’d looked like that before, when they were having dinner, Levi realised. 

Then he realised another thing. 

When had he told Eren his mom was a cop?

The boat continued its fare, and the boys didn’t speak much. The silence was comfortable. 

Somewhere along the ride, Levi started talking about constellations. 

‘’That’s orion, right there, and of course, there is the little bear, you know that it’s actually called ursa minor? My aunt has a telescope and we look at the stars together pretty often, mostly in winter, because then it gets dark early. She also has a map of all the stars and constellations, I’m not very good at recognising stars or planets, though.’’ 

He continued to talk like that for a long time, and Eren could only listen. 

His entire being seemed to shrink and fall into the palm of the boy in front of him, and all he wanted was to stay there. 

He seemed so warm, so safe, soft, innocent. 

So opposite of himself, yet, he went right through him. 

As if the iron wall Eren had set up around himself was made of flowers, the little boy walked right through, turned around, and carefully rearranged the flowers. 

Straightforward that made him want to fuck him senseless. 

His mind craved the image of Levi lying under Eren, trembling, blushing, panting. 

He wanted to hear him moan, whimper - scream. 

His skin ached for him, the feeling of that specific boy’s baby soft skin against his own.

The idea of pure innocence, turned guilty by his hands, and his hands only, must have been the most staggering thing that came to his mind. 

Yet - yet, he wanted to hold him, and nothing more. 

The two of them, on a sofa, their limbs tangled, the world turned off. 

No one would come near them, disturb them. 

Just the two of them and each other. 

Eren was convinced that merely Levi’s presence was enough to satisfy every need he had for the rest of his life. 

Through his dreaming, Eren wasn’t paying attention to where the boat was going, and before Levi could even start screaming, they hit the river bank at full speed. 

Levi was launched off his seat, and Eren jumped up to catch him. 

He did, but he hadn’t realised they were in a boat and that he couldn’t keep his balance there as well as he would like to. 

So when Levi hit him, he stumbled back, tripped over his bag and landed with a painful thud back onto his wooden seat. 

He groaned in pain, damn, that hurt. 

‘’Eren - I’m sorry - I just - I was going to crash and now I crashed you - I-I-I…’’ 

Eren smiled through the painful throbbing of his lower back. 

‘’Ssh, I’m not dead yet.’’ Levi exhaled a nervous chuckle, that left the impression he was choking on something. 

‘’The uh-the boat…’’ 

Oh right, the engine was still running. 

Eren turned around and quickly steered the boat back on track. 

They were on their way, faring smoothly, Levi contently sitting in Eren’s lap, breathing in that wonderful scent and calming down from everything that had happened the past fifteen minutes. 

A few more rather peaceful, quiet minutes passed, and it was still quiet when it suddenly got a lot more quiet. 

Levi looked up, they had stopped. 

Eren had cut off the engine and ‘’parked’’ the boat at the river bank. 

‘’Come on, let’s enjoy some of our own company before we hit town again.’’ He said, and sat up straight, Levi still in his lap. 

‘’Okay.’’ 

Levi got to his feet and stumbled out of the boat. His legs felt weird, kind of jelly-like. Probably from the strain he put on them earlier, he figured. 

 

Levi followed Eren into a by daylight coloured patchwork of meadows.  
The grass was dry and snapped under their feet, but the moon shined bright enough for Levi to see at least something. 

What he saw was a stranger version of reality. 

Small bushes cast stretched, grey shadows, and the flowers seemed to have changed colours. 

At night, the city came alive in a different, for some people more pleasant, form, but the countryside traded itself for an exact copy, but darker and more mysterious version, of itself. 

The countryside as well as the city night suited Eren very well, Levi thought, looking up at him. 

His eyes were somehow brighter in the moonlight, but they also appeared differently.  
Darker, if that made any sense. 

How could something be darker and lighter at the same time? 

Eren was a mystery inside and out. 

How cliche, Levi thought to himself, scoffing. I fell for the mysterious badboy. 

Then he wondered: would Eren be the kind of mysterious badboy to change just for Levi? 

‘’Say, Eren,’’ he started, not sure how he was going to end. ‘’Do I… change you?’’ 

Eren frowned at him. ‘’Uhm…’’ He looked to the left, then to the right, his mouth moving along with his eyes. ‘’Should I change for you?’’ 

Levi quickly shook his head; that wasn’t what he’d meant at all!  
‘’No, no I… I was just thinking about the contrast between you and I, and it kind of reminded me of books, so I wanted to see if I was right.’’ 

Eren looked puzzled, but went along with the idea. ‘’And, were you?’’ Levi smiled. ‘’Nah.’’ 

They stopped walking. ‘’Speaking of books, I have a book-like thing we can do.’’ 

Levi raised his eyebrows, questioning what they could do in a cast-off meadow at night. 

Unexpectedly, Eren’s hand came around his waist, and his breath caught in his throat. 

They had been touching each other pretty much the entire night; kissing, hugging, holding hands, but this was new. 

The other hand picked up Levi’s hand. ‘’Can you reach my shoulder?’’ Eren joked, and couldn’t contain his laughter. 

He bent forward a bit, and, through his chuckles, pressed his lips to Levi’s. 

Sadly, they were gone soon again, and Levi was left with a jab in his chest; disappointed. That was new, too. 

Levi wanted Eren keep kissing him, while he was laughing. Eren’s giggles and chuckles made Levi’s stomach fill with butterflies. 

Unless he forced Eren to kiss him, he would have to wait, and since Levi wasn’t much one for forcing people, he waited. 

He did put his hand on Eren’s shoulder. 

‘’So… What did you have in mind with this?’’ 

‘’Dancing without music on.’’ 

Yeah, that was definitely a book thing. They danced, and Levi did not understand how people in books remained so serious while doing this. 

‘’This is really weird, you know.’’ 

Eren grinned. ‘’Yes, I do. But isn’t it peaceful?’’ 

Levi giggled. ‘’I guess so, but… Still weird.’’ Eren twirled him, which made him even more giggly. 

‘’All right,’’ Eren said, and leant down. 

He grabbed Levi’s legs just under his butt and lifted him up. Levi squealed and quickly wrapped his legs around Eren’s waist. 

‘’What are you-’’ He didn’t finish his sentence, he just looked. Eren’s face was just below his own, and -impossible but true-, he looked even more breath-taking than before. 

A leveled look at his eyes made Levi able to see the moon reflected in them. ‘’Wow,’’ Levi breathed. ‘’What?’’ 

Eren’s eyes shot in all directions they could find within a second. The moon went from corner to corner, but then back to the middle. 

‘’You.’’ 

It made Levi blush to be this direct and he bit his lip, hoping it came out smoother than it felt. 

Eren was blushing now as well, and he averted his eyes, the corner of his mouth lifting involuntarily. 

This brought Levi’s attention to his lips, those soft, pink lips - and oh dear did he want to kiss them. 

‘’Hey, Eren.’’ 

‘’What?’’ 

He looked back up at Levi, licking his lips. 

_Seriously?_

‘’Kiss me.’’ 

‘’What? Now?’’ 

‘’Yes.’’ 

They kissed, and the butterflies in Levi’s stomach went absolutely mental. He put his hands in Eren’s hair on the back of his head, threading his fingers through the soft locks. 

Eren’s grip on his thighs tightened, and it was only now that Levi realised he might be getting heavy. 

He wanted to pull back and stand on the ground, but Eren opened his mouth and attempted to gently pry open Levi’s by pressing his tongue against them. 

Now Levi _jumped_ back and nearly fell back too. 

Hastily, Eren put him on the ground. 

‘’S-sorry I wasn’t expecting-’’ 

Eren shook his head, and for a moment, Levi was afraid he was going to get angry. 

‘’No, it’s fine. I probably move too fast anyway.’’ Eren scratched the back of his head, where Levi’s hands had been just a few seconds ago. 

He wanted to kiss him again, and it upset him that he got scared by such a small thing, even though Eren didn’t seem to mind. 

‘’Would you like to move on?’’ Eren asked after a short while of awkward silence. Levi nodded, and they returned to the boat.

The awkwardness faded, and Eren made it easy to talk about how Levi had never kissed someone before, and that French kissing was especially new to him. 

‘’It’s not that I don’t want to, it was just unexpected and I got a little scared.’’ He paused. “I think I prefer taking it slow, anyway.” He scoffed at himself, looking down at his knees. ‘’I’m saying that, even though we’ve already been making out.’’ He looked up to Eren, who was grinning. “Nah, it’s all right - I understand.” 

There was reassurance in his voice, and Levi felt relieved. 

Not as relieved as when they started their fare to get away from that guard, but the situations were hardly comparable. 

They fared, and the trip seemed endless, in a good way. 

Levi lowered his hand into the water and let it flow between his fingers. Eren was humming a song he didn't know.

It seemed like a dream, the world was far away. It was just them, and their own little world of the comforting silence of the buzzing engine. 

Eventually though, the sound of the city returned. 

The buzz of the world, life. 

Eren stopped the boat at a small dock, along with some other recreational boats. They got off, and made their way downtown.

\---

‘’What do you want to do? We have a lot of time left before I need to bring you home.’’ 

Levi scratched his head. They had reached downtown, walking through the dimly-lit streets. 

There were more people than you would expect there to be, on terraces, enjoying ice cold drinks. 

Sometimes, a group of girls would walk by. They giggled, arms locked together, hair swaying in all directions. 

They would probably start returning in about two hours, to go out drinking and dancing. 

‘’Pfff…’’ Levi looked around. 

His eyes found a tower. 

It was high and brightly lit by yellow lights, a church tower. 

The clock was nearly at the midnight mark. 

That boat ride had taken longer than he’d thought. 

It hit him that this was the loudest place they had been in two hours, and it seemed as if his senses started to get more sensitive as he realised that. 

The noise of the people around them turned into waves that rung in his ears, the bright colours stung his eyes and the breeze turned ice cold. 

Then the clock struck midnight, and loud bells rang through the entire city. 

Everything combined forcefully brought back the pain in Levi’s head from the collision with that pole in the aquarium. He felt it turn into a pounding headache. 

‘’Perhaps a place with pain killers?” 

He pressed his palm to his forehead. Eren nodded. “Okay.” 

He looked worried, Levi thought as Eren protectively put his arm around him, pulling him closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear readers,
> 
> I am very aware of how long it takes for me to update this story, and by all means, it's my own stupid fault. In the end, it wasn't a very good choice to divide the chapters into hours; an hour is a lot longer than you'd think. Rest assured, I will finish this, some day. Hopefully, that day will be soon, again, I'm sorry! I owe you guys, more than one. Please keep on reading, you have no idea how much I love you guys :)

**Author's Note:**

> From now on, every hour will be a chapter.


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